Factors Affecting IT-Based Knowledge Management Strategy in UK Healthcare System

Abstract

The technological development by the beginning of the 21st century is making it humanly impossible for unaided healthcare professionals to possess all the knowledge needed to deliver medical care with the efficacy and safety made possible by current scientific knowledge. Several healthcare organizations are adopting rigorous methods and technologies for KM as a potential solution to the knowledge predicament. However, awareness and understanding of such methods are not widespread with critics claiming that these technologies are not designed to be compatible with others neither are they interoperable. This paper describes an effort by the NHS for individuals, organizations and partners (commercial companies supplying services to the NHS) to demonstrate their belief in the importance of improving KM in medicine and show that this can be best achieved through collaboration and consensus. It looks at National Knowledge Service, set up to provide a range of services, through one or more open-access web sites. There is an asymmetry in most of the discussion of the field. KM, in this paper, is primarily discussed from the point of view of the user of medical knowledge. The motivation is seen to be the enhancement capabilities, and the utilization of knowledge to increase healthcare effectiveness.

Opportunities and challenges of social media for health knowledge management: A narrative review

“…Most of the health professionals have imagined that some clinical processes are at risk when they use new technologies. [ 25 ]…”

Managing knowledge in the healthcare sector. A review

“…The issues of mistrust in computerized data was also raised by Guah and Currie (2004) and Bower et al (2001), who studied the use of ICTs as a way of building cross‐professional and cross‐disciplinary boundaries. They found that the uptake and application of such ICTs was fundamentally affected by a range of social and operational issues, such as fears over a new formalization and traceability of previously informal conversations, a rebalancing of power relationships (between professionals using the ICTs and between doctor and patient), pressures on social/cultural and procedural alignment between participants, and personal attitudes to the technologies, i.e.…”

Knowledge Management in Healthcare

“…Establishing trust in KM systems and providing adequate confidentiality and security measures are of special concern in health care and so are particularly challenging; indeed different researchers raised concerns regarding the formalization and traceability of conversations through KM systems (Guah & Currie, 2004;Nicolini, Powell, Conville, & Martinez-Solano, 2008). Besides, the well known time pressure in the health sector, due to a shortage in health professionals, is a particular barrier to the implementation of KM in health care; indeed, the use of IT and KM tools will be perceived as cumbersome unless adequate usability consideration and innovative interfaces are developed for KM systems.…”